Flex Sockets Results

Flex Sockets Results

Charles H. Pritham

2/3/2003

My thanks to all who responded. The results as of Monday evening are:

Use Pro-Flex with silicone. The silicone is impregnated into the plastic

Proflex with or without silicone

The Durr Flex form guard has less friction than most of the others.
I use this alot for my flexible transtibials. Works well.

have available an ULFS (Ultra Low Friction Sheath) that is used to assist in
donning. It is not a donning sock but is a parachute-like material that is
put over the sock and then helps to slip into the prosthesis. You can see
this product in your Hanger supplemental Knit-Rite catalog on page 59.
Please call Andrea DeSchain at 800-821-3094x6318 if you have any questions.
It will also be viewable at the Reno show this week.
Thanks,

I've been using Thermolin-flexible through Otto Bock for my flexible inner
sockets. I find the material less tacky than Surlyn or similar, allowing
ease of donning

Poly-eth allows a friction free donning for sock fit AK's.

I've gone to Northvane (Endolite - also called Superflex)
with silicone almost exclusively with AKs. It bonds to itself, which
allows drape forming, but is not tacky like some other interface
materials. The RL can slip into the socket fairly easily, and the
external frame can be trimmed significantly and the flexible liner will
still provide some support.

My experience: Bioelastic has greatest friction, no sock fit drop in. Bio
Flex is more slippery, you have a chance.

I have hard time finding a satisfactory answer to this problem. Most
plastics are too tacky to be acceptable. For a while American Plastics in
Dallas had a great material called Sofflyn. It is no longer available. It
was similar to Surlyn but more flexible. Like Surlyn it had very minimal
shrinkage and molded well to difficult contours. I have had to go back to
Surlyn...it's adequate but not great. It's like stepping back to the
original design from Fillauer except adapted to current shaping contours. It
is quite a struggle to be sure the material comes out with the desired
thickness. Sofflyn because it was more flexible was not as likely to become
rigid if it was a little too thick.

I have gone back to low density Polyethelene and surlyn fo this. I have
found that a lot of my Transfemoral and hard socket transtibial patients
like this. Also, by using the polyethelene for the flexilbe inner linr I am
able to reduce the outer frame considerably

We have been having success using the Otto Bock Thermolyn soft. It is
flexible but not tacky like most flexible plastics.

I like using Proflex, by Fillauer.
I have used just about every flexible plastic available, and Proflex has
been my first choice since it appeared on the O&P market.
It is extremely easy to fabricate with, it has nice flex characteristics,
its non sticky, and it has very little shrinkage if heated and cured
properly.Most of our TF patients who have flexible sockets with ridged
frames don’t require lotion to don into a Proflex inner.

I've been using Surlyn in this manner for years with excellent results.

ProFlex with silicone IF, IF, IF the modified cast is SMOOTH, SMOOTH,
SMOOTH.


C. pritham